The Oscars Are Happy To Recognize Latino Stories, But Not Latino Actors

The Oscars may not be so white anymore, but they’re certainly not diverse.

The film industry has been forced to re-evaluate itself since April Reign first tweeted out #OscarsSoWhite in 2015, and we’ve begun to see more black actors be recognized at major awards ceremonies. But the Oscars So White movement was never meant to be black and white.

Sadly, those figures all remained the same when the 2018 Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday. The Academy recognized Latino stories, but our actors remained forgotten.

Pixar’s “Coco,” set in Mexico, received nods in the Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song categories; Guillermo del Toro was recognized for directing and writing the aquatic love story “The Shape of Water” (which overall earned an impressive 13 nominations); and Chile’s “A Fantastic Woman,” about a transgender woman dealing with discrimination after the death of her boyfriend, picked up a nod in the Best Foreign Language Film category. A nomination for Best Animated Feature also went to “Ferdinand,” a film that was set in Spain but had Brazilian director Carlos Saldanha at the helm and cast many Latinos in voice-acting roles.

All four acting categories, however, failed to include Latinos ― even with the buzz around Salma Hayek’s nuanced role in “Beatriz at Dinner” and Daniela Vega’s lead role in “A Fantastic Woman.” Vega also could have been the first openly transgender performer recognized by the Academy.

There’s a particular lack of Latino speaking roles. Only 3.1 percent of speaking characters were Latino in 2016′s top 100 films, according to a report by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

“I mean, we do make [up] 55 million plus in the country — no big deal — you should throw us in a movie or two, it would make sense,” Rodriguez said, lookingstraight into the camera. “We do buy 1 in every 4 tickets every single weekend and make sure that your movies do well. So it would do you a service. And not only service, it would be — I don’t know — integrity.”

How I feel about the #Oscars this morning and the lack of Latinos...“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity” -Viola Davis (Thank you @RealGDT and @pixarcoco for being our visibility)

Latinos will proudly celebrate the strides in representation made by “Coco” when the 90th annual Academy Awards ceremony airs in March, even as our actors and actresses remain forgotten. And perhaps as the film’s song “Remember Me” is performed on the Oscars stage, the Academy will listen and not leave us to fade into oblivion.